Mass Effect Legendary Edition

[Oz]

2 minutes ago, Thor said:

I'll admit to having initial mixed feelings on the ending, coming away not too disappointed, but disappointed nonetheless ... only to then have my opinion coloured by the frothing masses, and I ate it up like an incel reading a feminine agenda conspiracy theory. What a twat. However, the extended cut was a definite improvement, and the citadel DLC, which for me is the true ending (from a certain point of view) is just fucking fantastic. 

[Vulgar Monkey]

Talking of reactions going back to an old franchise after a decade, another one I had was 'hoo-boy, the character design for the female characters is.....a thing'.

 

Not sure how anyone couldve complained about feminist agendas back in the day when half the cast are spilling out of their armor. Looking at mods, I was pleasantly surprised to see that there is even one to make Samaras armour a bit less silly. Call me old fashioned, but I like my sci-fi gritty, whereas ME very much leans into the 'kirk bangs all the aliens' school of thought.

 

Maybe the incels just got upset because everyone agreed that FemShep is clearly the better Shep due to Jen Hales VA work.

[Tomdominer]

1 hour ago, Thor said:

I'll admit to having initial mixed feelings on the ending, coming away not too disappointed, but disappointed nonetheless ... only to then have my opinion coloured by the frothing masses, and I ate it up like an incel reading a feminine agenda conspiracy theory. What a twat. However, the extended cut was a definite improvement, and the citadel DLC, which for me is the true ending (from a certain point of view) is just fucking fantastic. 

 

I didn't really buy into the whole outrage either. I think the only real valid takeaway was that it gave you a choice regardless of how you played, instead of kinda totting up all your previous choices over the last three games and then saying "you have caused an ending like this", because it undermined the entire "your choice matters" approach I suppose.

 

EDIT: What other people said already, sorry.

[Floshenbarnical]

1 hour ago, Vulgar Monkey said:

Talking of reactions going back to an old franchise after a decade, another one I had was 'hoo-boy, the character design for the female characters is.....a thing'.

 

Not sure how anyone couldve complained about feminist agendas back in the day when half the cast are spilling out of their armor. Looking at mods, I was pleasantly surprised to see that there is even one to make Samaras armour a bit less silly. Call me old fashioned, but I like my sci-fi gritty, whereas ME very much leans into the 'kirk bangs all the aliens' school of thought.

 

Maybe the incels just got upset because everyone agreed that FemShep is clearly the better Shep due to Jen Hales VA work.

jack is embarrassingly underclothed. Embarrassing for the developers, embarrassing for the project managers, embarrassing for me.

[Oz]

1 hour ago, Floshenbarnical said:

jack is embarrassingly underclothed. Embarrassing for the developers, embarrassing for the project managers, embarrassing for me.

I really like the alternative cyberpunk outfit which comes standard in this edition. I think you had to buy that as a pack back in the day. I think if this game had been made today Jack would be trans. I don't really see her as a woman. not sure if it is ever addressed how they/them identify. rekindling the relationship with Liara in layer of the shadow broker is really touching here. and really ahead of its time in terms of a mature lesbian relationship. 

[Oz]

1 minute ago, Oz said:

I really like the alternative cyberpunk outfit which comes standard in this edition. I think you had to buy that as a pack back in the day. I think if this game had been made today Jack would be trans. I don't really see her as a woman. not sure it is ever addressed how they/them identify. rekindling the relationship with Liara in layer of the shadow broker is really touching here. and really ahead of its time in terms of a mature lesbian relationship. 

 

some of the dialogue when romancing Liara in ME1 with femshep has aged rather poorly. 

[Floshenbarnical]

Getting rather close to the point of no return in ME2 (Reaper IFF). So far I have recruited everyone except Legion & Samara, done everyone else’s loyalty mission, done all 19 N7 missions found by scanning planets, scanned the whole galaxy, have every upgrade not locked behind Samara/ Legion & beyond, have 45,000 eezo and about 150,000 of every other resource, and have all the armor and weapons and have done every side quest in every hub except Ilium. I think that’s all there is to do in the entire game. I never did Arrival back in the day … the final set piece is very cool but the whole thing’s not very … good, is it. Overlord was terrible. 
 

This has been great but I will not be doing NG+

[Thor]

5 hours ago, Floshenbarnical said:

Overlord was terrible.

I WOT M8! The shitty vehicle made of paper mache aside, Overlord is great. Arrival works better after the main game, but yeah it's not all that great really. 

[Sprite Machine]

I'll start playing this all again soon. I finished replaying ME1 back in February (Paragon Biotic femShep) and haven't had time to carry on yet. I remember ME2 being quite a bit longer, particularly with all the DLC.

 

Remind me, was Lair of the Shadow Broker best done after the main story or during?

[Thor]

1 hour ago, Sprite Machine said:

I'll start playing this all again soon. I finished replaying ME1 back in February (Paragon Biotic femShep) and haven't had time to carry on yet. I remember ME2 being quite a bit longer, particularly with all the DLC.

 

Remind me, was Lair of the Shadow Broker best done after the main story or during?

Thematically? After, I'd say. But during does give you access to resources etc.

[Stejay]

I installed this recently and started the first game, but all voices are completely missing. 

[Thor]

13 minutes ago, Stejay said:

I installed this recently and started the first game, but all voices are completely missing. 

Re-install? Something very wrong there.

[Stejay]

19 minutes ago, Thor said:

Re-install? Something very wrong there.

I’ve been meaning to. Did they add any QOL additions and / or update combat in the first game?

[Thor]

2 minutes ago, Stejay said:

I’ve been meaning to. Did they add any QOL additions and / or update the first game?

In the LE? Yes, but not a huge amount. Subtle things mostly, with the most noticeable changes for me being the ability to use a sniper rifle without the camera moving all over the shop, and adding a forward boost to the mako in addition to the already present vertical thrusters. 

[Floshenbarnical]

14 hours ago, Thor said:

I WOT M8! The shitty vehicle made of paper mache aside, Overlord is great. Arrival works better after the main game, but yeah it's not all that great really. 

Overlord is *ok* but it’s simply a series of combat arenas, some of which look very good, with lots of Found Footage storytelling. I didn’t even know I was doing Overlord until the AI thing became apparent. I was pretty stoned, I think I thought it was another brief N7 mission. Same with Arrival - I went to rescue this woman because Hackett asked me to, thinking it would be another N7 jaunt and all of a sudden I’m getting betrayed and locked in a hospital room.

 

Something I’m finding during this replay is that the combat is really *boring*. It’s not bad it’s just predictable and slow, even as a Vanguard

[Floshenbarnical]

On 05/07/2022 at 20:57, Floshenbarnical said:

This has been great but I will not be doing NG+

 

Famous last words. I forgot that you can't do *any* missions after the Reaper IFF if you don't want your crew to get liquified. Poor Kelly Chambers. So I guess I will be hitting that level cap after all.

 

heck

[Oz]

Just played the suicide mission again. It has been a while. Nothing has ever been this good. What mission in gaming has ever been this memorable? Although I still remember how to make everyone survive I was still tense all the way through wondering if I’d misremembered something. I actually never played arrival for some reason so going to give that a go this time before jumping into me3. I can’t remember which of the two choices at the end was preferable so I just choose one I thought more in character. 

[Oz]

one complain is that when you visit the citadel with legion everyone should be losing their shit and nothing seems to be changed. this did not bother me back then but really bothered me now for some reason. 

[Thor]

Geth do not intentionally infiltrate. 

[Mars]

On 06/07/2022 at 17:39, Stejay said:

I installed this recently and started the first game, but all voices are completely missing. 

 

Miss FX.

[Stejay]

15 minutes ago, Mars said:

 

Miss FX.

For fuck’s sake. I had to say that twice in my mind before the penny dropped!

[Wiper]

I'm not going to jump into the ME3 debate for once (I think they call this personal growth?), but I shall join in with the "where were you when JFK was shot the towers fell you played the Effects of Mass" game.

 

At the time of Mass Effect's release I was in the first year of my master's, and had been excitedly following the development of ME ever since its first announcement; the developers of BG, KOTOR and Jade Empire working on a big-budget, own universe sci-fi game? What could be better! It was the primary reason I'd bought a 360 (much like buying a Dreamcast for Shenmue many years earlier), and I was not disappointed.

 

I marathoned the game in the way only a sub-30 year old can, completing it in one, breathless session (playing as an engineer). I loved the story, the characters, the aesthetic, the scale. I then went back and did it again, enjoying the unlocks that achievements granted, expanding my options. I then invited a friend — a lapsed gamer, who had largely left the medium since the PS1 — to play it. She then finished it in two sessions, while I helped with some of the more challenging gameplay sections (she struggled with dual analogue controls), and otherwise watched and chatted. Then she too played through it again. The game was so good she ended up getting a 360 herself, and continues to play video games to this day — so good job on that front, Mass Effect! 

 

The second game came out while I was working abroad, teaching English in France. I marvelled at the opening and the graphics, a big step up from ME1. I merrily ploughed through the game over a couple of evenings, and enjoyed myself (and the returning cast of characters, and the ending flow chart where I accidentally killed several of my crew through blundering decisions), but was a little disappointed by the bittiness of the storytelling and the increased shootiness of the combat. Still, I overall enjoyed the game, as did my aforementioned friend — who visited me the week after launch and once again played through the game on my machine (albeit this time mostly while I was at work). All in all, a nice time was had.

 

Finally, ME3 came out shortly after I'd moved into a flat with my partner in Nottingham. Again, I dedicated a weekend to playing it; as with the previous games, I went in blind and only surfaced once the game was finished. My friend also played through the game at release, and we had a call when we'd both finished it to discuss... And we were both disappointed. Aside from a few highlights (notably Mordin and the Tali/Geth resolution — my friend got the suicide ending, whereas I managed to engineer peace, and so I was distressed to learn how badly it could go, and she was distressed to learn how well it could have gone. Good stuff!), it just didn't do what we'd hoped for from the final game in the series, in terms of structure, gameplay or narrative. Ah well.

 

When I surfaced online to check the response to the game I was initially pleased to see my dislike reflected (I'm used to being a pariah, funnily enough), but that soured when I realised the level of vitriol and aggression going the devs' way. Good old gamer "culture" at work! I was also a little surprised at the monofocus on the game's ending, which I thought was a particular lowlight, to be sure, but not to the exclusion of its other issues, but hey ho.

 

It's an interesting series for me, because it effectively spans my 20s; I was finishing university when the first game came out, and starting my career by the time of the last. I had the same key friend for the release of all three games, someone who reflected the excitement (and disappointment) of each release, albeit at a different level of remove each time. And, funnily, I was probably happiest as a person when the game that disappointed me the most came out (and vice-versa), so that's a fun juxtaposition! 

[therearerules]

Have you played it since? I couldn't imagine playing it without the Citadel dlc now.

[Wiper]

Yeah, I played the remasters that this thread formed around. Finished 1 (as good as I remembered) and 2 (a little weaker than I remembered), but found 3 just too much of a slog and ended up giving up on it (got a little bit past the assassination, plus the Omega and Leviathan DLCs). I just don't get on with the game's story or pacing at all

[Floshenbarnical]

55 minutes ago, therearerules said:

Have you played it since? I couldn't imagine playing it without the Citadel dlc now.

 

What's this? I rinsed ME1&2 but only played ME3 once due to life circumstances. I didn't have internet at the time so didn't do any of the DLC.

[therearerules]

5 hours ago, Floshenbarnical said:

 

What's this? I rinsed ME1&2 but only played ME3 once due to life circumstances. I didn't have internet at the time so didn't do any of the DLC.

Then you are in for an amazing time.

[Floshenbarnical]

1 hour ago, therearerules said:

Then you are in for an amazing time.

 

 

Lair of the Shadow broker blew my mind the other day, lol.

[Oz]

I wish they had backtracked more of the combat to earlier games. Guess I just want more of a remake. I really do like me3 combat a lot better. Particularly the equipment weight mechanic. I was always carrying all these weapons i never used. I can just spec biotic and fucking send everyone flying all the time. This third one started stronger than I remember. Mars is brilliant. I love the piano theme of this one as well. It hits me in the sad feels of nostalgia for that time. 
 

fake edit: also it’s true no one else sees the kid! Maybe she is indoctrinated. 

[Scruff]

Don't forget the legendary ed of this is free on PC if you have Amazon Prime today (around 5PM) along with a few others. You'll need Origin to run it obviously but hey, an amazing free game is an amazing free game.

[thesnwmn]

46 minutes ago, Scruff said:

Don't forget the legendary ed of this is free on PC if you have Amazon Prime today (around 5PM) along with a few others. You'll need Origin to run it obviously but hey, an amazing free game is an amazing free game.

 

Already available.